Many existing information and e-commerce websites have the capability to provide comments relating to certain news stories, topics or products. The comments are displayed in thread lists, and users are able to read the comments relating to the news stories, the topics or the products. However, comments related to a particular news story, topic or product are typically static. Some e-commerce websites allow one-to-one interaction between a buyer and a seller, but the e-commerce websites are typically not able to satisfy the demand for interaction among multiple buyers with respect to the same product. For example, in one scenario, user A wants to buy a certain product on a certain e-commerce website, and is able to review comments from other users on the product in the web pages related to the product. However, the comments related to the product are typically static, and the comments are generally published by other users immediately after purchasing the product. Since user A typically cannot contact other users directly, there is not a way of knowing how the other users feel about the product after they have used the product for a period of time. In another scenario, user B is a member of an information website. After examining a topic of interest to the user, for example, user B may want to gain a better understanding of the topic and begin discussing the topic with other users knowledgeable about this topic. Without knowing who might be interested or knowledgeable about this topic, it would be difficult for user B to contact the other users and engage them in conversation.
News stories, topics and products are all able to attract user interest. Existing web platforms, however, typically do not provide good facilities for initiating real-time discussions between multiple users interested in the same news story, topic or product.